Built as a passenger-cargo vessel under yard No 407 by Fairfield Shipbuilding & Engineering Co. Ltd., Glasgow for the Castle Mail Packets Co. Ltd., London. (Managed by D. Currie & Co., London.)
12 May 1899 launched as the KINFAUNS CASTLE.
Tonnage 9,664 gross, 5,063 net, dim. 162.46 x 18.04 x 10.57m., length bpp. 157.06m.
Powered by two quadruple expansion steam engines manufactured by shipbuilder, 1,663 nhp, twin shafts, speed 16 knots.
Accommodation for 266 first, 171 second and 198 third class passengers.
August 1899 completed, homeport London.
September 1899 maiden voyage from Southampton to Cape Town, arriving on 18 October 1899. She was employed on the South African Mail Service.
1900 Owned by Union-Castle Mail Steamship Co. Ltd., London, same managers.
April 1902 stranded at the Island of Wight and it took several days before she was refloated.
During the Boer War she transported also some troops.
05 August 1914 hired as an Armed Merchant Cruiser by the British Government.
Fitted out with 8 – 4.7 inch guns.
08 August 1914 commissioned as HMS KINFAUNS CASTLE and sailed to Simon’s Town to join the Cape Squadron. During the voyage south she captured the German barque WERNER VINNEN loaded with coal. She put a prize crew on board and sent her into Freetown.
06 November 1914 left Simon’s Town for the operations off the Rufiji Delta till February 1915.
August 1915 returned in the United Kingdom.
16 September 1915 decommissioned as AMC and refitted in a troopship.
October 1915 in service as a troopship mostly in the Mediterranean and Mesopotamia till 26 January 1918.
13 July 1918 requisitioned as a minelayer, converted in Millwall when the war ended the project was cancelled.
January 1919 returned to owners.
08 September 1922 she was one of the ships who rescued off the coast of Portugal the passengers and crew of the floundering German HAPAG liner HAMMONIA.
After the WINDSOR CASTLE (2) came in service, she made one voyage with troops to the East before she was laid up at Netley (Southampton).
October 1925 disruption in the mail schedule due of a shipping strike she came again in service for one return voyage to the Cape.
17 November 1925 left Cape Town for the last time.
From January till April 1927 chartered for a trooping voyage from Southampton to Shanghai and back.
September 1927 sold to the Dutch breaker NV Frank Rijsdijk’s Industriële Ondernemingen, Hendrik-Ido-Ambacht near Rotterdam. Work completed on 03 October 1927.
Liberia 2015 $30 sg?, scott?
Source: http://www.clydeships.co.uk Union-Castle Line a fleet history by Peter Newall. Armed Merchant Cruisers 1878-1945 by Osborne, Spong & Grover.